Trump says there will be peace in Gaza – but the devil is in the detail

Friday night brought flickers of what almost everyone – bar Benjamin Netanyahu’s extreme right, warmongering cabinet ministers – has been desperate for. News of a ceasefire, and a possible plan to free Gaza from the slaughterhouse it has become over the last two years.

Hamas tentatively welcomed Donald Trump’s efforts, as well as those of the international community and Arab states, to end the devastating war.

The militant group, responsible for the bloody attacks on 7 October 2023, agreed to release all the remaining 48 hostages – both dead and alive – “according to the exchange formula” in Trump’s 20-point plan.

This, they added, would be done “in a manner that achieves an end to the war”. It followed Netanyahu’s endorsement of Trump’s plan last week, albeit with his own interpretations.

So, is this the moment millions have been dreaming of and campaigning for? The end to mass slaughter in Gaza? To what the UN Commission of Inquiry concluded was genocide? To the two-year-long nightmare for the families of Israeli hostages and captives? The end to a region-wide war that has pushed the world to the brink?

Trump, who has campaigned as the peacemaking president and has eyed up the Nobel Peace Prize, certainly thinks so: “Based on the statement just issued by Hamas, I believe they are ready for a lasting PEACE. Israel must immediately stop the bombing of Gaza, so that we can get the hostages out safely and quickly! This is not about Gaza alone, this is about long-sought PEACE in the Middle East,” he wrote on Truth Social.

The devil, however, is (as always) in the detail. And so far, neither Netanyahu nor Hamas has agreed to every specific point in the plan. Instead, both have publicly declared their own interpretations of the proposal and vowed to support that.

The problem is that the 20-point plan is vague. So vague, in fact, that it has allowed Trump, Netanyahu, Hamas, and key figures in the region to effectively release and promote their own interpretations of it.

The statements accompanying each endorsement paint such entirely different pictures, you wonder whether they were even looking at the same document. And this, I fear, will be the issue when it comes to actually trying to implement it and achieve the much sought-after peace.

For a start, Hamas said that it would be willing to hand over all the hostages and captives within 72 hours, a significant breakthrough, adding that it would immediately be open to discussions on the details.

Responding to Trump’s plan, it welcomed the “full withdrawal” of Israel from the Gaza Strip, the exchange of Palestinian prisoners, the immediate entry of aid, the rejection of the occupation of the Strip, and the rejection of the forcible displacement of Palestinian people.

Hamas also said it was willing to hand over administration of Gaza to a Palestinian body of independent technocrats, as outlined in Trump’s document.

But crucially they also said that Hamas would remain part of the Palestinian “national frameworks” and would contribute “with full responsibility”. In other words, Hamas is not going to simply disappear.

Also telling is Hamas’s failure to agree to disarm – or even to mention the demilitarisation of the besieged Strip – which was specified in Trump’s plan and was a key demand reiterated by Netanyahu at the press conference that accompanied its release. Point six of Trump’s plan says Hamas members would be granted amnesty, and those who wish to leave Gaza would be provided with safe passage; Hamas also did not acknowledge this.

Pouring fuel on the fire is the fact that Trump’s plan contains no provisions or guarantees for the creation of a Palestinian state.

Instead – somewhat confusingly – it states that after the removal of Hamas, if the internationally recognised Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank is “reformed” enough to be allowed back into some role of power, then “the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood”.

But again: no guarantees. At the press conference announcing the plan, Netanyahu jumped on this. He said he welcomed Donald Trump’s rejection of a Palestinian state, and added that recognising one would, in the context of the October 7th attacks, “reward terrorists, undermine security and endanger Israel’s very existence”.

He also added a few more caveats, including to the PA’s “reform” that are not listed in Trump’s 20-point proposal – such as ending “lawfare” against Israel at the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice (in other words, impunity), stopping incitement in the media, and the PA recognising a “Jewish state”.

Once again, we’re looking at interpretations of a vague text that directly contradict one another.

The question remains: can these disparate statements – cherry-picking and interpreting different aspects of the vague 20-point plan – translate into meaningful, long-term peace?

Patrolling Nato’s skies with the RAF on Europe’s creeping frontline

As the seemingly unremarkable ZZ-343 aircraft taxies along the apron at RAF Brize Norton, it passes the vibrant union flag livery of its distinctly more glamorous twin the Vespina, emblazoned with the words “United Kingdom”.

The planes are fine examples of these islands’ genius for compromise. They’re passenger carriers that are also airborne fuel tankers, known as Voyager. Vespina is fitted out to carry royalty and other British VIPs – but put to better use by the military most of the time.

On this autumnal evening, ZZ-343 left her sibling on a once almost unimaginable mission. Part of Operation Eastern Sentry, she is carrying fuel to Typhoon fighter jets patrolling the skies over Poland to see off Russian invaders.

Inconceivable at the end of the 20th century, Eastern Sentry is now what passes for a “norm”. The hybrid Voyager aircraft is now engaged in hybrid warfare with Russia that’s heating up and defining the early decades of this century.

Still in British air space, ZZ-343 begins to carve ovals in the dark sky. Two Typhoons emerge from the gloom, green lights on their sides and tails flashing. Pulling alongside the Voyager, the fighters fill up before racing off to Poland as part of the Nato-wide response to Russia’s drone assaults there.

One struggled to latch on, rearing and bucking in turbulence as it approached a pipe that has been wound out of the left wing of the Voyager. Its companion is already guzzling on the right wing.

It takes nerve to force the Typhoon jet hard through the churning air – a fireball in the sky the only consequence of a miscalculation of margins measured in inches.

The Voyager feeds about two tonnes of fuel into each of the fighters who stay alongside the mothership before darting away into the black. Below the North Sea glistens – a few patches of orange light spatter its surface – with ships thousands of feet below.

Some, perhaps, are part of Russia’s shadow fleet of tankers, smuggling fossil fuels to sell for cash that helps power Vladimir Putin’s old-fashioned war on the ground in eastern Ukraine.

Last weekend, French commandos raided and captured the Baracay, a ship suspected of being used by Russia as a platform for drones that had disrupted Danish airspace. It had already been under sanctions for fuel smuggling.

This week, Danish intelligence said they had multiple examples of Russian warships tracking their aircraft with weapons systems.

Danish Defence Intelligence Service director Thomas Ahrenkiel explained: “Russia is using military means, including in an aggressive way, to put pressure on us without crossing the line into armed conflict.”

Late last month, Estonian airspace was violated by three Russian fighters for 12 minutes. And before that, Poland saw some 23 Russian drones fly into its airspace. They turned out to be unarmed and some were shot down.

This penetration of sovereign airspace is both a warning, a threat and a test by Russia.

For all of these incursions, Nato’s response has been swift, with the mobilisation of a multinational effort over Poland to reassure Warsaw and show the Kremlin that the alliance remains robust and healthy.

But Putin’s hybrid warfare has been effective in inflaming existing political infections across the West. His support for Brexit, far-right parties in Europe, the magnification of extremist perspectives by Russian bot farms, and useful idiots on both sides of the Atlantic have all combined to weaken Western democracy and alliances.

Russia’s population is roughly a third of the European and UK’s combined. It’s economy amounts to about a tenth of the size of the EU plus UK.

But the Kremlin’s efforts to undermine Western institutions have allowed it to punch well above its weight.

In response, the UK has sanctioned Russian spy agency the GRU and several of its spooks.

In July the Foreign Office said that “the GRU routinely uses cyber and information operations to sow chaos, division and disorder in Ukraine and across the world with devastating real-world consequences”.

Donald Trump has, until recently, indicated more support for Putin’s campaigning in Ukraine than he has for defending democracy.

Ironically his wavering leadership of the West has meant that Nato and other allies have hardened their own efforts at defence.

Trump has demanded that Nato’s members outside the US contribute a bigger, and fairer, share of their budgets to defence. They’ve mostly committed to upping their efforts from below 2 per cent of GDP to 3.5 per cent and are making noises about going to five.

So the RAF Voyager flights in support of Typhoons are just part of Nato’s hardening of its conventional defences.

Many in the alliance hope that such efforts will be the end of friction, but in hybrid warfare there are only beginnings.

‘How medical cannabis helped me embrace life again after chronic pain’

More British women suffering from chronic pain are opting for medical cannabis after over-the-counter treatments failed to provide any relief.

They are turning to the rapidly expanding private sector, where cannabis is more accessible, particularly for those dealing with conditions like menopause and endometriosis.

Since medical cannabis was legalised in 2018, thousands of women have accessed the treatment, although it remains rarely prescribed on the NHS.

Kirstie Baker, a 55-year-old mum from Cardiff, said her life was upended when she entered menopause five years ago. “I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t communicate properly. I was snapping at my children, my husband was nervous around me, and I just didn’t feel like me anymore,” she said.

GPs prescribed antidepressants for her symptoms, but they left her feeling woozy and hungover. “It was chemical chaos in my body,” she said.

A conversation with a family member at a Christmas party introduced her to the idea of medical cannabis. Shortly after, she got it prescribed from Alternaleaf, one of the UK-based online clinics.

She immediately noticed a difference, and now medicates in the morning and at night, ingesting it through a vape. “Before I started taking it, I was becoming quite reclusive. I didn’t really want to go anywhere or do anything,” she said. “I became quite anti-social.

“When I started using medical cannabis, all of those things started to dissolve… and I really started to embrace life again.”

Ms Baker had struggled for years to get effective treatment, and felt as if she wasn’t being heard. She said: “We need to talk about menopause more, what it really does to women, how lonely and misunderstood it can be.

“And we need to talk about medical cannabis, too. If I hadn’t heard about it through my nephew, I’d still be suffering.”

A Nurofen report from late last year found that 81 per cent of UK women aged between 18 and 24 felt that their pain was dismissed or ignored. Ms Baker said she hopes to see it become more recognised as an alternative to other pain medications.

Medical cannabis is thought to regulate pain, inflammation, ease nerve sensitivity, and improve sleep.

The NHS can prescribe cannabis-based medicine via a specialist hospital doctor or under a specialist’s supervision. There is a range of licensed treatments for conditions including sclerosis, rare severe epilepsies, and nausea caused by chemotherapy.

But it very rarely provides the “full-spectrum cannabis treatment” Ms Baker uses, which contains all compounds found in the cannabis plant.

A survey of 500 NHS doctors this year found that 80 per cent would consider prescribing cannabis for women’s health conditions if it were available to them.

About 80,000 people are currently using medical cannabis in the UK, according to the Medical Cannabis Clinicians Society. Of those, just six have been prescribed through the NHS, the group said. The rest access it from around 40 specialist clinics.

Ms Baker said: “When I spoke to my GP about this, they weren’t very forthcoming with information on it. They weren’t going to promote it, they would rather me try various antidepressants.”

Her clinic says the number of female patients has grown by 50 per cent every three months over the past year, nearly half of whom are being treated for chronic pain. To qualify, patients must be over 18 and have a confirmed diagnosis.

An NHS spokesperson said: “Many doctors and professional bodies remain concerned about the limited evidence available regarding the safety and efficacy of unlicensed cannabis-based products and licensed products being used off-label for other medical conditions.”

But Professor Mike Barnes, a neurologist and medical cannabis expert, argues otherwise, and claims there is overwhelming evidence showing that it is safe.

He said that while many effective painkillers exist, some women reach a point where no licensed medications work. Mr Barnes said those people should consider medical cannabis.

For women with chronic pain like endometriosis, menopause, or perimenopause, he said: “It’s a very good, valid alternative for chronic pain.”

Mr Barnes believes that this will become more normalised for people with chronic pain and“the numbers are going up about 2,000 to 2,500 a month privately”.

“The side effects are very minimal, relatively easy to control,” he said, claiming that when properly prescribed, there is no risk of getting addicted or dependent.

“I don’t think there is much of a downside. It’s not safe for everybody, but a proper prescription, a properly trained doctor would exclude the small number of women who wouldn’t be suitable for it.”

Those who have recently suffered a heart attack, a stroke, or have a history of psychosis would be excluded from the treatment. “Like any medicine,” he said.

‘If this was Heston, we’d hail it as genius’: Inside Greggs’ first pub

Ever had a hankering for a cold pint of beer that tastes just like a glazed jam doughnut? No, me neither.

But in The Golden Flake, the pub just opened by the seemingly unstoppable bakery chain, Greggs, anything is possible.

The quirky pop-up in Fenwick’s department store in Newcastle is the sort of place that might have been conceived by Willy Wonka – if he’d bought a little boozer on his retirement from the confectionery trade.

Certainly one of its signature beers, the Pink Jammie Pale Ale, brewed in honour of Greggs’ famous doughnuts of the same name, was just too weird for some customers – though to be fair, the more you drank the less you noticed the cloying sweetness.

There’s a more basic brew on the pumps alongside the Jammie – the Gosforth 1939 Stottie Lager, this one with a strong hint of another fabled Geordie delicacy, the stottie cake (a flat bread bun to those who have never had the pleasure).

Most customers, however, have come for the food, a gentrified version of the simple fare available in Greggs’ 2,600 stores across the UK.

I ordered a steak bake mixed grill (£12.50) which consisted of Greggs’ popular pasty, a fried egg draped over the top, a side order of chips and a grilled tomato. The arrival of a gravy boat was confusing – had it been brought by mistake to the wrong table?

Reassured by the smiling server, I found myself wondering when the last time had been that I poured gravy over a fried egg. Conclusion: Never, but don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. If this had come from Heston Blumenthal’s test kitchen we’d probably be hailing it as genius.

The next dish to arrive was the sausage roll and mash. This was not the “sickly sausage roll” that Gazza sang of in his post-World Cup rendition of Fog on the Tyne – no, this was a posh sausage roll. You knew it was posh because it was cut in two on the diagonal and propped up vertically against the mash, a scattering of dried sage leaves across the gravy giving a final flourish.

Those leaves were doing some heavy lifting because this dish cost £9, in comparison to the £1.50 you’d have paid for the same sausage roll in a paper bag from the non-fancy Greggs 20 yards away.

But was anyone carping about the price? Emphatically no – the tables started filling up as soon as the Golden Flake opened its doors at 11am on a sunny midweek morning.

Ryan and Lesley Coutts were having a date day, Ryan enjoying a Stottie Lager and Lesley an Orchard Pig cider. Had either tried the Pink Jammie? Ryan gives an involuntary shudder and confirms the bar staff were happy to give out samples to the briefly curious.

The young parents’ choice of venue was a nod to Ryan’s gran Mary Youern, aged 84, who was an employee at one of Greggs’ first stores, in Washington, Tyne and Wear.

Ryan, 32, said: “Greggs is such an institution in the North East and my Nana is proud of her association with it.

“She was offered shares many years ago but decided on a £1,000 bonus which took her and grandad off on a fantastic holiday to Italy.

“Given what’s happened since, the shares might have been a better option, but they were happy.

“They also get 50 per cent off Greggs food for life so you can’t complain about that either.”

Lesley, 31, said: “The Golden Flake is really nice, the decor reminds me a bit of Beamish Museum, it’s very quirky.”

With a nod to a collection of Toby jugs grinning down from a high shelf, she adds quietly: “And a bit weird.”

Pat Grainger, on a day out from the Grangewood Care Home in Shiney Row, near Sunderland, enjoyed her meal. She said: “We had a sharing platter between four of us and it was lovely, especially the sausage rolls, you can’t beat a Greggs and they’ve done this place up lovely.”

Malcolm Harrison, 72, and his wife were celebrating the 40th birthday of their youngest daughter, Stacey.

Malcolm said: “We’re having a family party tonight but this seemed a nice place to come for a bite during the day, we’ve just had sausage rolls and fish goujons and a drink.

”People in the North East are very proud of Greggs, it hasn’t just become a national concern, it’s now an international brand. We’re very proud of our sausage rolls in this part of the world.”

Ian Hall, 65, and wife Jean, 69, just had starters. Mr Hall said: ”We always come into town on a Tuesday and we’ve heard a lot about this place so we wanted to try it out. I’ve had the chicken goujons with chilli honey, it was very nice.

“Greggs just seems to be getting bigger and bigger and I really like the way they’ve done out their own pub.”

The Golden Flake will remain open until February next year and will operate like any other Newcastle pub, even hosting quiz nights on a Tuesday evening.

On Sundays it serves what it terms a “traditional” Sunday carvery, though at the centre of all the trimmings – cauliflower cheese, roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings – will be a choice of steak bake, chicken bake or cheese and onion bake.

Fenwick’s store director, Kieran McBride, told The Independent: “It has been quite overwhelming in terms of response. It is our third collaborations with Greggs but this has been the biggest so far.

“Both Fenwick’s and Greggs are famous names in the North East and we’re delighted to be working together so well.”

Sesko strikes and handed VAR reprieve as Man Utd defeat Sunderland

Manchester United defeated Sunderland in the Premier League to ease the pressure on Ruben Amorim as striker Benjamin Sesko scored for the second game in a row and survived giving away a penalty at the other end.

Defeat at Brentford last weekend had increased the spotlight on the United head coach before facing the newly promoted visitors, as rumours swirled around Amorim’s future and the Portuguese gave an impassioned defence of his position on Friday.

But two early goals at Old Trafford was just what Amorim needed as Mason Mount and new arrival Sesko put the hosts in a dominant position. Mount was left with time and space to fire in from 16 yards after just nine minutes, before Sesko doubled United’s lead from close-range.

Sesko was handed a reprieve just before half time after Stuart Atwell overturned his decision to award Sunderland a penalty. Sesko was initially ruled to have caught Trai Hume with a high boot, but VAR ruled he did make contact with his head.

United survived another small scare – as debutant goalkeeper Senne Lammens, starting ahead of Altay Bayindir, escaped punishment for bringing down Betrand Troare outside of the box – but the win came as sweet relief for Amorim.

Follow the reaction from Manchester United v Sunderland, below:

Eats, Beats and Storied Streets: A journey through Louisiana

Few places in America are as spellbinding as Louisiana. Streets are alive with music, every table groans with food that tells a story, and every river bend reveals landscapes as mysterious as they are beautiful. Whether you’re dancing to zydeco in Lafayette, devouring beignets in the French Quarter, or gliding through the Atchafalaya swamps in search of alligators, this is a destination which offers travellers an unforgettable blend of rhythm, flavour and culture.

Music that Moves You

A seemingly never-ending party, a stroll through the bouncing streets of New Orleans’ French Quarter is one of America’s most thrilling sensory experiences. Guitars crunch, symbols crash and horns howl on every street corner, from Bourbon Street to Frenchmen Street. This Cajun corner of the US has a deep heritage too, and the Preservation Hall – dating back to 1961 – is an essential stop. With its intimate time-worn walls and wooden chairs facing the small stage, it’s a shrine to New Orleans jazz and every note should be savoured.

But Louisiana’s music tradition goes far beyond the Big Easy. Beginning in 1981, the Baton Rouge Blues Festival is one of the country’s oldest blues festivals and the state capital is a haven of Cajun music. It’s also the home of the swamp blues, so to hear the best of these laid-back rhythms, spend a foot-tapping night at Phil Brady’s Bar & Grill or Henry Turner Jr’s Listening Room. And for a little backyard boogie from local Louisiana musicians, try and hit the wonderfully chilled out Bee Nice Concert Series.

One of the more niche regional sounds is zydeco, and these infectious beats driven by accordions and washboards are perfect for dancing the night away. Over in Lafayette, the lush outdoor Hideaway on Lee and the charming Blue Moon Saloon host high-energy zydeco and Cajun jams. For a deeper dive into this unique music of the swamp, drop by the Festivals Acadiens et Créoles for three glorious days of Cajun, Creole, and zydeco sounds.

Flavours to Savour

Louisiana has one of America’s most distinct food cultures, with Creole dishes like gumbo and jambalaya not found anywhere else. Needless to say, the fiery flavours found in these creations are sublime and it’s no surprise that 2025 is Louisiana’s Year of Food.

With its rich broth, often featuring a roux base and embellished by juicy shrimp and thick sausage, gumbo is arguably the quintessential Creole dish. If you’re in New Orleans, look no further than no–frills downtown spots like Coop’s Place or head out to neighbourhood joints like the upscale Gabrielle Restaurant who serve a smoky take on Cajun-style gumbo or the dense dishes plated up at Liuzza’s by the Track. And if you’re so enraptured by this unique stew, then learn how to make it at home at the New Orleans School of Cooking.

A Cajun rice dish that originated in southern Louisiana in the 18th Century, Jambalaya is also iconic down here and can include meats, vegetables, seafood and spices in its mouthwatering mix. The Jambalaya Shoppe is dotted all around southern Louisiana and is a good place to start, though make time to visit Gonzales – the ‘Jambalaya Capital of the World. It even has its own Jambalaya Festival every spring.

Remember to make time for sweet treats though, as Louisiana’s beignets are something special. Warm, deep-fried pastries dusted with powdered sugar, these gentle delights are the perfect cafe snack. Open since 1862, the Cafe du Monde is an iconic French Quarter spot to watch the world go by with a beignet and café au lait.

And if you’re here for Mardi Gras, make sure to sample the sweet colourful King Cake as the jaunty floats pass by.

Culture and the Great Outdoors

Louisiana’s diverse cultural heritage is as unique as its landscape. French, Spanish, African, Caribbean and native influences all converge into Cajun and Creole identities and that’s most famously reflected in the state’s sublime cuisine. But don’t miss the great outdoors, as Louisiana’s biodiversity is enchanting too.

Acadiana’s humid moss-cloaked swamps and bayous are one of America’s last wildernesses, and boat tours of these serene and ethereal landscapes are unforgettable, especially if you spot wildlife like American Alligators, beavers, herons, eagles and white tail deer. The Atchafalaya Basin, just east of Lafayette, is a particular haven and several airboat tours depart from here, including McGee’s Swamp Tours and Last Wilderness Swamp Tours.

Road trails through these bayous can be just as inspiring, and the Bayou Teche National Byway tells stories. Running for 183 miles from Arnaudville down to Morgan City, this serpentine route passes by ornate antebellum homes like Shadows-on-the-Teche, tranquil fields of sugar cane, breezy swamps and historic towns packed with friendly cafes, zydeco dancehalls and local museums.

Look out for the region’s lively 400+ festivals too, which often celebrate Louisiana’s local culture. The Festival International de Louisiane in Lafayette celebrates the links between Acadiana and the Francophone world, through music, art and food, while the Southwest Louisiana Zydeco Music Festival in Opelousas aims to preserve Louisiana’s most gleeful music genre. And there’s no better way of learning about the state’s people and heritage than at the various tours, concerts, talks and cultural events held in Vermillionville in Lafayette.

Dozens injured after Putin’s forces strike Kyiv-bound passenger train

Volodymyr Zelensky says at least 30 of civilians have been injured in a “savage” attack on a passenger train in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region.

Russia’s attack had targeted a railway station and a train heading to Kyiv was hit, regional governor Oleh Hryhorov said. The governor posted a picture of a burning passenger carriage.

It comes after Russia carried out its biggest attack yet on Ukrainian gas facilities on Friday, according to Ukraine’s largest national oil and gas company.

Naftogaz said Russian forces had launched the largest strike on its gas production facilities since the start of the invasion in 2022, causing “critical” damage.“Facilities in Kharkiv and Poltava regions were hit with 35 missiles, many of them ballistic, along with 60 drones,” they said in a statement.

Russia’s Vladimir Putin warned Donald Trump on Thursday that the US risked “a new stage of escalation” if Washington provides Ukraine with long-range Tomahawk missiles.

Meanwhile, Munich Airport resumed services earlier on Saturday, after it was shut down for the second time in less than 24 hours over suspected drone sightings.

McCarthyism 2.0: From Stephen King to Judy Blume, nobody’s safe from Trump’s book banners

What do A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, Forever by Judy Blume, and Wicked by Gregory Maguire all have in common? Answer: they’re among the most-banned books of the last school year in America.

That’s the same A Clockwork Orange that Time magazine included in its list of 100 best English-language novels since 1923 (the year the magazine was founded). The same beloved children’s author, Blume, who wrote Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. And the very same Wicked that imagined the backstory of the wicked witch of the West from L Frank Baum’s 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, adapted into an Oscar-winning film starring Ariana Grande.

According to the latest report from PEN America, which fights to protect the right to free expression, Stephen King is now the most-banned author in US schools.

It has terrifying echoes of the McCarthy era in America, when suspicion of communism led to blacklists targeting actors, writers, and intellectuals, stifling careers and silencing dissent. Today, a new wave of censorship is sweeping through the country, and with Donald Trump’s return to power, these efforts have only intensified, creating an environment in which fear and political pressure threaten the free expression of ideas – and some say democracy itself. Which is all quite ironic when you consider the rhetoric about freedom of speech that is also coming from this administration, leading to the conclusion that speech should be free only when you are saying what they want you to say.

And it’s not just books. Since Trump became self-appointed chair of Washington, DC’s Kennedy Center (and overhauled its board) in early 2025, more than 20 productions and events have been cancelled or postponed, including Hamilton and the children’s musical Finn.

The Trump administration rescinded $1.1bn (£817m) in grants to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The US Naval Academy removed nearly 400 books from its library collection to comply with executive orders. And most recently, under pressure from the Federal Communications Commission, late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel was temporarily suspended by ABC after he made comments suggesting that the alleged killer of conservative activist Charlie Kirk was linked to the Maga movement.

That latest incident led to two unlikely allies coming out in support of Kimmel’s right to free speech. Texas senator Ted Cruz, a polarising figure known for his staunch conservative positions on immigration, abortion, and government spending, said it was “unbelievably dangerous for government to put itself in the position of saying we’re going to decide what speech we like and what we don’t, and we’re going to threaten to take you off air if we don’t like what you’re saying”.

And representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who gained national attention for promoting conspiracy theories, challenging the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election, and making inflammatory remarks, said she believes free speech “must be protected. Even speech that I don’t like and disagree with … And most importantly, Americans must retain the right of free speech to criticise their own government and any other government”.

Four years ago, then Texas representative Matt Krause initiated an inquiry into the presence of certain books in Texas school libraries, which would include works by authors of international note whose books are studied as academic texts across the world. Krause published a list of around 850 books, asking schools in his state if they held any on their shelves, explaining that he was targeting titles that “might make students feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress of their race or sex”.

On Krause’s list was John Irving’s The Cider House Rules, Quinceañera, a book about the traditional Latin American celebration marking a girl’s 15th birthday and her transition from childhood to womanhood, numerous other titles whose authors are Black, Indigenous or people of colour or contain LGBT+ content, and a graphic novel edition of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale – ironically, a dystopian story about a totalitarian society where women are stripped of their rights.

Carolyn Foote, a Texas librarian, was on the frontlines in 2021 when fears of book bans became national news. “We started engaging in this when Matt Krause’s list came out,” she tells The Independent, “and back then, of course, we never imagined a scenario where it would become so widespread in our state and nationally.”

“One district in San Antonio pulled all the books they owned from [Krause’s] list off the shelves,” Foote continues. “I think at the time, school libraries were the canary in the coal mine. What we’ve been seeing, especially in the last year, is the chilling effect on academic freedom at the university level, led by the state, the crackdown on protests on college campuses … there’s a concerted effort by politicians to remake public institutions into political vehicles to carry their message.”

Foote says she fears the proverbial Pandora’s box has been opened. “It feels like the South has suddenly moved back to Jim Crow days, where our laws were different from everybody else’s, our freedoms different from everyone else’s. There’s a pernicious movement in some states to meld Christian nationalism in universities and schools – that’s the piece I’m more worried about. And I feel the harm to students. They will go out of state to attend college … take a job somewhere across the country, creating a cultural divide.”

But, Foote adds, groups have sprung up to fight censorship. “We’ve seen pushback at the local level against these bills. In early races that have happened in different states, there’s been big gains on the Democratic side. Even Ted Cruz spoke up about Jimmy Kimmel. So it gives me hope we will move out of this moment.”

Foote appears in a new documentary film, The Librarians, from Oscar-nominated and Peabody Award-winning director Kim A Snyder, about a group of unlikely activists taking on the battle against censorship. It follows librarians across Texas, Florida, and beyond as they join together and resist the growing wave of book bans.

Appearing alongside her is Weston Brown, whose battle against censorship became personal. When he came out to his evangelical Christian parents as gay at the age of 24, he was told he wasn’t welcome in their home, and for a long time had limited access to his siblings.

But it wasn’t until he watched a viral video of his mother calling on a Texas school board to pull library books she deemed pornographic or “LGBTQ-positive”, and insisting a local pastor decide which titles should stay, that he decided to speak out publicly.

“Texas still, in a lot of ways, is the Wild West,” Brown says. “Ideas are tested. It’s like a petri dish to see what will happen here, what will be tolerated.”

Then, he says, those ideas, in this case book bans, are taken to Florida and other states – states, he points out, “that receive the most federal aid, and are the most Republican, and have the worst education, but the ideas spread anyway”.

Brown says he made it his goal to read as many of the banned books and makes the point that it isn’t just books that deal with sexuality that Republicans are targeting. “Anything that teaches a version of American history that is uncomfortable” is on the list, Brown says. “They want to replace it with a version of American history that is comfortable for them, but it’s worse than that, because it’s not only going on the offensive against people who don’t fit into that sort of straight, white, Christian, God-and-country mould. What is happening here is the spread of Christian nationalism.”

Becky Calzada, another Texas librarian, says: “In a way, I think a lot of this is happening because there’s no understanding of the processes we have in place; this comes from a few people that really are intent on sharing false information about what libraries do, about the purpose of libraries.”

In 2021, Texas governor Greg Abbott signed a bill banning the teaching of “The 1619 Project” in Texas public schools – a journalistic initiative by Nikole Hannah-Jones and The New York Times that re-examines US history through the lens of the legacy of slavery. “We can’t even use that in a school now,” Calzada says. “In other words, if a teacher wants to teach Black history or maybe wants to just talk about history and wants to bring this perspective, it’s not allowed. That is state law.”

Calzada says when she was growing up, she didn’t have access to books with characters that looked like her – a little Hispanic girl – and that’s changed, until recently. “Book banning will only reverse this”, she says. “I think of the analogy of pulling a rock out of a dam,” she says. “The whole dam is going to burst. So if they pull one book, when are they going to stop?”

On Wednesday this week, the actor Jane Fonda announced she was relaunching her father’s McCarthy-era free speech initiative, the Committee for the First Amendment.

“I’m 87 years old. I’ve seen war, repression, protest, and backlash, but I can tell you this: this is the most frightening moment of my life,” she said in a statement.

Actor Henry Fonda originally founded the group to combat a new wave of censorship in the late 1940s and it was supported by some of the most famous faces of the era, including Humphrey Bogart, Judy Garland, and Frank Sinatra. His daughter’s retooled campaign is backed by around 600 people in the entertainment industry, including Ben Stiller, Barbra Streisand, Spike Lee, Ethan Hawke, and Whoopi Goldberg.

Controlling speech is the hallmark of an emerging autocracy and, according to New York’s lieutenant governor Antonio Delgado, at this moment in time, America finds itself in a unique position. “The extent to which our constitution is being disregarded at the highest levels is something that I cannot ever recall us having to endure,” he says. “And [this is] where we are in less than one year of this administration.”

Delgado says what he believes is often overlooked in all this are the close relationships Trump has with the likes of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, and his interest in who takes over TikTok.

“Because if you control the platforms upon which information is shared as well, and you have a direct line to how to manipulate that information and disseminate that information, you’re not only controlling people’s speech, you’re controlling what they receive. You’re controlling the world around them and how they perceive it.”

“There is no desire here to enable the free flow of information, which is an essential component of any free society,” Delgado adds. “An informed citizenry is absolutely necessary; having an objective reference point that is rooted in fact is also a critical component.

“All of these things are being eroded at an incredibly accelerated rate. To be American in so many respects is to speak freely – it’s very much at the centre of who we are. And if there’s anything that I think will raise the collective ire across the political spectrum of Americans, it’s their speech being controlled.”

As Offred, recalling life before Gilead, says in The Handmaid’s Tale, “Nothing changes instantaneously: in a gradually heating bathtub you’d be boiled to death before you knew it … The newspaper stories were like dreams to us, bad dreams dreamt by others. How awful, we would say.”

In Atwood’s imagined future United States, this insidious change was gradual and almost imperceptible. In Trump’s America, the chilling of free speech is unsubtle and unapologetic. But the effect is the same. It too is like a bad dream – and all the signs are there that the next chapter could be even worse.